Contents

An avid fan of video games, Ledford began his career in 1990 by founding Gametronix. The business grew to become America’s second largest importer of Japanese video games and consoles such as Mega Drive, Famicom, Super Famicom and PC Engine.[1] John’s interest in anime began after being introduced to My Neighbor Totoro.[2] In 1992, he and Matt Greenfield turned their attention to the anime industry and founded A.D. Vision.[3]

A.D. Vision (aka ADV Films or ADV) became a global leader of anime entertainment, innovation, media diversity, branded consumer products, licensing and publishing.[4] By its tenth year, ADV was the largest employer of actors in the Southwest United States and expanded to include Tokyo and UK branches. Within a decade, ADV cemented its status as a major distributor of anime in North America, releasing titles such Neon Genesis Evangelion, Sailor Moon, and Hello Kitty.[5][6] The company also released live-action films on DVD, such as Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda (TV Series) and Earth Final Conflict as well as the Sci-Fi Channel and Jim Henson hit series Farscape, promoted original film releases and ventured into extreme wrestling with Combat Zone Wrestling.

Ledford then founded Anime Network, North America’s first all-anime dedicated cable TV network, in 2001; it grew from just 500,000 households to reach over 40,000,000 households.[7] The following year he started publishing Newtype USA in partnership with Kadokawa Publishing. The publishing operation grew to include ADV Manga, which licensed and published hundreds of Japanese manga and Korean manhwa for North American distribution.

Ledford co-founded J-Spec Pictures in 2008 with producer Joseph Chou. The company’s first project revolved around Halo, the number one global franchise by developer Bungie and published by Microsoft Corp.

In 2008, Ledford established separate companies from ADV called, Sentai Filmworks and Sentai Holdings.[8] Since then, Sentai has acquired roughly four hundred licenses including a number of acclaimed titles such as Grave of the Fireflies, Ninja Scroll, High School of the Dead, and Gatchaman. In 2014, Sentai Filmworks acquired the North American license to Short Peace, an omnibus collection of four anime shorts including the 86th Academy Awards nominated Best Animated Short Film Possessions directed by Shuhei Morita.[9] The film had a nationwide theatrical release in over 250 theaters. Sentai Filmworks continues to manage one of the world’s largest anime libraries released across traditional and digital media platforms.